SHARKS NOTEBOOK / Slumping Avs Lock Up Title

Published 4:00 am, Friday, April 17, 1998

1998-04-17 04:00:00 PDT Denver -- The Colorado Avalanche last night won their fourth straight division title, but you've seen guys get more excited about cleaning out the garage.

"No celebration," said Colorado centerJoe Sakic. "We're pleased that we won, but there's nothing to celebrate. The playoffs are coming."

And the Avalanche are stumbling into them. Their 4-1 win over the Sharks at McNichols Arena ended a seven-game winless streak, a mind-boggling nose-dive for a team with talent all over the place.

"Everybody goes through slumps," Sakic said.

Colorado ended its drought long enough to capture its third straight Pacific Division crown. The Avalanche also won a Northeast Division championship in their final year as the Quebec Nordiques, in 1994-95.

"We should have clinched it a long time ago," said Avalanche defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh, an ex-Shark. "We kind of delayed it. . . . We're starting to jump over that barrier of self-doubt now. We didn't think about losing, everybody tried to make a play instead of thinking."

PLAYOFF PICTURE: The Avalanche will be the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference and will play the No. 7 team, either the Edmonton Oilers or the Sharks. San Jose needs to win against Calgary tomorrow night and hope that Edmonton falls to Toronto in order to move up from No. 8. That scenario would give both sides identical 34-38-10 records, but since the Sharks own the tie- breaker -- superior goal differential -- they'd be seventh.

Phoenix won last night to clinch sixth in the West, meaning the sixth spot would have been out of the reach for the Sharks even if they'd beaten Colorado.

SHARKS AT REST: Center Bernie Nicholls and right wing John MacLean, a pair of well-worn veterans, were given the night off. Nicholls has a dinged-up shoulder and MacLean an achy knee, but each would have been more than ready to go had coach Darryl Sutter wanted to use them.